


After it. (Because we were meant to be from the start)

by anellope



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, Fix-It, Gay Richie Tozier, M/M, Post-Canon Fix-It, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Spoilers, The Kissing Bridge (IT), Truth or Dare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-11 02:33:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20538707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anellope/pseuds/anellope
Summary: "Eds" Richie grinned broadly, gently squeezing the other's hands again. "Play truth or dare with me, trust me""Okay, Rich, I choose dare, now? Will you tell me to kiss someone?"Eddie always chooses dare if he feels sure of himself."Follow me, piece of shit, I want to take you to a place"Or, one of the truth or dare/kissing bridge fix fic we all need at the moment.





	After it. (Because we were meant to be from the start)

**For anon. **

Everything had moved faster in Richie's head. Too fast.

Mike in danger, those lights, emptiness.

Then Eddie's face, Eddie's eyes, Eddie's excitement, his sudden closeness...

Pennywise's claw through Eddie's body, that terrifying and huge hole in his stomach, fear, blood, fuck, all that blood...

Fear in Eddie's eyes, in everyone's eyes, mirrors of his own. 

The confident look of his friends while insulting that monster. 

"Bring him out, Richie! Go ahead, we'll make it!" 

Running, pain, only blood in sight.

Eddie had his eyes closed, he was breathing hard. 

The hospital was close, Richie felt his chest compress under the pangs of pain caused by fatigue only when they took Eddie to the intensive room. 

They had asked him questions about what happened, concerning about the particular wound, about his wet clothes.

Richie had only hinted at _ an accident _, eventually the doctors had stopped trying. Then he started counting the seconds.

_ 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... _

Eddie may be dead. Richie might not have done enough, not run fast enough, lost everything. 

_ 26 ... 27 ... 28 ... 29 _...

His friends could all be dead. They may have been subjected to Pennywise's will, they may not have believed enough, having only four left to fight. 

_ 145 ... 146 ... 147 ... 148 ... _

He may be the only survivor... The last Loser left... they could all be with Stanley now. He could have abandoned them all. 

_ 1234 ... 1235 ... 1236 ... 1237 _...

Eddie may never wake up again. He may not see any of them again. _ Never again _.

What should you do? 

What should you do now?

He didn't know how much time had passed, but in the end the others arrived. Bill, Ben, Bev and Mike, soaked, tense, but alive, winners. Richie hugged each of them, unable to stop shaking, to force himself not to cry, not yet. 

_ He will live. _

_ "I_s It dead ... did it really die?" 

"Yeah, it's over Rich, we're safe."

  
  


Several hours later a doctor arrived, his face tired but satisfied. 

"It was hard. We lost him twice, I thought it was impossible until the end." he explained, under everyone's dismayed look. Richie found himself breathing mechanically: it was like feeling the fresh air in his lungs for the first time since the Jade of the Orient night. Years seemed to have passed since then. 

"I still can't explain what happened, but I believe that it's for a great part thanks to the strength of that man, or maybe he did something special, something that gave him the miracle of survival.

I don't know, frankly, I can't really explain it , I just know that... non _ someone _ had decided he couldn't die today."

"... Can we see him?" Bev asked in a faint voice, she was shaking. 

"Not yet ... for patient safety it is better that nothing even contaminate the air that is breathing. It is stable for now, but I do not intend to allow anything to happen." 

They all nodded, Richie sat in the nearest chair, bringing his hands up to his face and finally letting out the first sobs. 

Immediately they were all around him. Squeezing, caressing, whispering jokes and reassurances. 

_ Eds was fine. _

_ He had made it. _

_ They made it. They made it. They made it. _

"One last thing," the doctor muttered, looking at them seriously. "When he arrived here, Mr. Kaspbrak was badly reduced, he needed a blood transfusion and several operations on his internal organs. But during the operation we realized that one part of the lung had been perforated. We still don't know for sure how long, but surely for the next few years it will not be able to pump air by itself and therefore it will need an oxygen tank. We have already advised his wife of this. just let you know about it. "

"Uh ... uhuh."

***

"Are you excited about going out, Eds?" 

Eddie smiled broadly "I've only been trapped in four walls too white for four long months, Rich. With just you and at first my ex wife. I'm literally shitting my own pants under the sole idea of seeing a tree up close."

_ His ex wife. _

Richie took his hand, it had become natural again after what happened with IT, like when they were just children and they were familiar enough between them to feel empowered to hit each other's faces even with their feet. And Richie never seemed willing to let him let go of him for more than a few seconds. They were just so clingy. 

"I didn't imagined you as a flowers lover, but who am I to judge."

"Go fuck yourself Richie."

He smiled, like Eddie, who squeezed his hand with sudden delicacy.

"I just wish I didn't have this stupid _ gadget _ with me. I didn't need an inhaler 10 times bigger to take me for a walk. That's not why I burned mine. I'm sick of being the one with the handicap."

Richie's eyes suddenly softened to watch him pull the tank with a snort. He stopped abruptly, and so did Eddie, not even he had ever tried to stray too far from Richie, as if it were in his prescription not to even think about moving away from him again, to separate. 

_ See what happened when they separed last time. _

"You know, I'm grateful that Kyle is here, with us. I know this is a big obstacle for you right now, but think about what you went through before that."

Eddie looked at him, and it seemed like it was the first time he saw him. He grinned in amusement "I don't understand why you insist on calling him Kyle. It's an object, a walking box that I have to carry around, and certainly Kyle isn't the name that suits him the most."

Richie chuckled, squeezing Eddie's hand in his. "I can't hear you, Kyle is so proud of its name that everything else is U-NIN-POR-TANT!" 

They laughed, neither of them thought of untying their hands, and that was fine. They were fine. 

They left the hospital and kept joking with each other until Richie, watching Eddie throw several hateful glances at the box he was towing behind, suddenly found himself sad. 

"Eddie ..." he murmured, the man looked at his face, not understanding the sudden change of mood. 

"You're so strong, Eddie, and I want you to know it. Soon ... soon your lungs won't need anything to work, soon you'll be independent, as you've always been. But, for the moment, I like to have a visual reminder of the fact that you're still here, because ... well ... it's 100 times better EddieandKyle than anybody at all, right? So... don't spoil the experience of going out for so long. "

After a second of total silence, Eddie smiled, even better, he chuckled. "Rich, I really want you to know that... I'm grateful you stayed here with me during all this time. I don't know what I would have done without you, I wouldn't even live in reality so... thanks I mean. " 

Richie's lips widened into yet another sweet smile, then suddenly grew dark, thoughtful. Eddie obviously noticed it immediately.

"Rich ... what-"

"Play truth or dare with me." 

Eddie rolled his eyes several times, looked at him confused. "Did you suddenly become more stupid, dipshit? We already passed middle school." 

"Eds" Richie grinned broadly, gently squeezing the other's hands again. "Play truth or dare with me, trust me" 

"Okay, Rich, I choose dare, now? Will you tell me to kiss someone?" 

_ Eddie always chooses dare if he feels sure of himself. _

"Follow me, piece of shit, I want to take you to a place" 

"Is it my dare? Follow you?" 

"Yup" 

"Okay, Rich, I think I can't pull back then" 

Richie, heart pounding, didn't answer.

***

"Why did you bring me here, moonstruck?" 

"If you shut the fuck up for five seconds you could hear your own thoughts and get it, asshole," chuckled Richie, his voice slightly shaking. 

"Rich... you're okay, right?" 

"Yes... yes Eds, I'm fine, we're... we've arrived." 

"Finally! So? What were you supposed to show me so important in this- ...Oh."

Eddie had stopped talking abruptly, taking the steps that still separated him from the beams of the wooden bridge. Every step he took was covered by the squeak of his tank wheels and Richie's heart, which was beating wildly now. 

Eddie brought two fingers to touch the incision, noticing that it was old, very old. And it couldn't be a coincidence if Richie had shown it to him, right?

Eddie gently stroked the coarse roughly carved R, then the rest of the engraving with a quick gesture.

"R + E..." he read aloud, as if he wasn't sure he had read correctly. Richie nodded behind him, although he couldn't be seen. 

"Do you ... do you hate me now?" 

Eddie whirled towards him, his cheeks slightly red, his eyes bright, a confused little smile on his lips. "Rich, what are you saying..."

"Truth or dare?" He interrupted him. Eddie looked at him in surprise

"Wouldn't it be my turn now?" but Richie seemed sure "Truth or dare?" 

"Truth, Rich"

"Do you hate me now? You can't lie now."

Eddie burst out laughing, standing up again and reaching his friend "Are you stupid? Do you think I could ever hate you, Richie Tozier?" 

He took his hands in his, as he had done before. He smiled sweetly at him, his eyes chained to his own, Richie felt himself burn and his legs tremble, sure that he would not be able to stand it for long.

"I'm so scared, Eds, all my life I... I..." He felt Eddie bring a hand to his cheek in a caress. Richie found himself leaning against it, it was like the crutch he had needed all his life. 

"Do you trust me?"

"What?" 

"Come on, asshole, do you trust me?" 

Did he? Was he ready to risk it again? To open up, to leave someone the possibility of entering? But with Henry's cousin, he -

"Yes."

But Eddie was not Bowers, nor his cousin. He was his best friend, his first love. The only one he ever had.

He would have given his life for him, yes, yes he trusted, blindly. 

Eddie smiled, bringing also his other hand to caress the man's profile, Richie felt almost pathetic in feeling his eyes tingle with tears, but he had never felt happier in his life.

"Truth or dare, Rich?" 

Breath failed. 

_ Trust him. _

_ He will not abandon you. _

Richie smiled tenderly. "Truth."


End file.
